Medical personnel attending to a surgical procedure are at great risk to come into contact with patient blood. A serious danger exists with such exposure in the event the blood is infectious and comes into immediate contact with the skin or mucosa of the surgical personnel.
Surgical gloves and other body covering, traditionally worn to maintain sterile environment in operating rooms, can provide a certain barrier to an infectious exposure to blood from the surgical patient having, for example, hepatitis or Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). Surgical gloves, however, may have microscopic holes or openings therein which either occur during manufacture or which form while being worn.
Microscopic holes which occur during glove manufacture are extremely difficult to detect. On the other hand, those which occur while being worn will not generally be known, if at all, until after harmful exposure has been effected. Inasmuch as the hands of the surgical personnel may possess abrasions or cuts that provide a source of entry for the infectious disease, it is essential that their hands be afforded greater protection than that provided by standard surgical gloves.
In a typical operating room scenario, the undetected holes that occur in surgical gloves are only recognized by evidences of blood upon the hands of the surgical personnel after the surgical procedure is completed and the gloves have been removed. Indeed, health professionals are much more likely to come into contact with contaminated blood in this manner than by a needle stick, since personnel often have minute cuts, abrasions, and skin rashes which can be a portal of entry. In such working environments, therefore, it is imperative that a protective coating be applied to the hand surfaces beneath standard surgical gloves as a shield against skin contact from blood and blood products that may penetrate the gloves and otherwise cause infection of personnel. Most desirable in a gel form, such a protective coating should be sterilizable, non-toxic, maintain its physical properties at body temperature, be hydrophylic and water insoluble. It should further be non-reactive with the latex rubber of conventional surgical gloves, act as a lubricant during hand insertion into the gloves, remain on the site of application for several hours during any procedure, and be readily removed thereafter.
While numerous protective gel compositions have been developed for topical application to the skin, such compositions have generally been used for the temporary treatment of surface wounds, providing a water-soluble coating impermeable to air-ridden germs and bacteria. While these water-soluble compositions have provided satisfactory protective coatings that prevent germs and bacteria in the air from reaching the skin surface, they have not provided adequate protection from the biochemical hazards carried by blood and blood products to which the hands of surgical personnel are constantly exposed.